Movies and American Society

The second edition of Movies and American Society is a comprehensive collection of essays and primary documents that explore the ways in which movies have changed--and been changed by--American society from 1905 to the present.

• Each chapter includes an introduction, discussion questions, an essay examining the issues of the period, primary documents, and a list of further reading and screenings
• Includes a new chapter on "American Film in the Age of Terror" and new essays for Chapter 9 ("Race, Violence, and Film") and Chapter 13 ("Hollywood Goes Global"), as well as updated Reading and Screenings sections
• Discusses all the major periods in American film history from the first nickelodeons to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the globalization of Hollywood
• Demonstrates the unique influence of movies on all aspects of American culture, from ideology, politics, and gender to class, war, and race relations
• Engaging and accessible for students, with jargon-free essays and primary documents that show social practices and controversies as well as the fun and cultural influence of movies and movie-going

Steven J. Ross is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. He is co-director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and author of Workers On the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in Industrializing Cincinnati, 1788-1890 (1985), Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America (1998), and Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics (2011). Ross is the recipient of the Theater Library Association Book Award and a Film Scholars Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.